It happened. I (basically) met my deadline to address the curtain issue in my dining room by the end of January. To say I’m proud of myself is an understatement—yes, even if I actually, technically, did this entire project start to finish, starting on February 2 and taking a not that great photo (more on that down below) on February 3, all the while knowing a post about it was due to go live on February 4. And while I don’t recommend that kind of pressure for anyone, especially when it’s your birthday, your kid is sick, and your family is juggling some unforeseen stressful situations, what this proved to me is that a project I’ve been toiling over for months, heck, even years, only took a few hours to finish. Typical.

But first, let me rewind for those of you joining us on this topic late.

This was my dining room until yesterday morning. It’s perfectly fine, but the cafe curtains I made after moving in weren’t working for me for a multitude of reasons. In short, they were, well, too short, rigid due to the wrong fabric choice on my part, and didn’t suit a window of this size.

I went on a journey in this post exploring possible solutions, and in the process, I unexpectedly stumbled upon a look I ended up loving. Of course, it was just a Photoshop mock-up, and I knew the real-life version was going to be a little different, but it was exciting to have a plan after two years of being in style limbo.

Here was what I mocked up, using these curtain panels from West Elm in the color Mulberry:

The soft, mauvey-clay pink looked like a nice bridge from the warm wood tones in the furniture and floor to the color palette of the rug. They matched the light blush petals nicely. As I mentioned in the post, we are likely not staying here for much longer, so I didn’t want to invest in expensive curtains, and a new DIY presented itself.

Here was the plan: Take white cotton curtains I had stashed away in a cabinet, dye them a similar color, and hang them with a curtain rod I also had lying around in the garage. Spending $30 on dye and a few hours of my time seemed like a well-worth it experiment to save $300 on ready-made panels.

The Dye Color Options

Rit dye’s website has a great section where you can pick a very specific color, and it gives you the exact coloration formula to get there. I dug through the pinks, reds, and browns to find something to match the West Elm curtains. I should note that I took a zoomed-in photo of the fabric from the brand website and used that, which was actually much more terracotta than the pinkish hue seen above.

These were the four colors I considered. I liked the balance of Ruddy Red, the subtleness of Sangria, and the depth of Mahogany. End of Road felt a bit too brown to me, but SPOILER, in retrospect, I think it was the better color. Let’s keep going, and you’ll see why.

So off I went to Michael’s to grab some bottles, and while I was there, I decided to go a bit rogue and also get a bottle of the color eggplant. I trusted Rit’s color combo instructions, but thought that a bit of eggplant could add a touch of plum to the finished result, and that seemed enticing to me.

My curtains were cotton, so I was able to use the All-Purpose product, though take note that if you’re dying anything synthetic, they have a different dye for that. I also planned on using my top-loader washing machine because I didn’t know another way to maneuver the size of draperies. I would also like to add that I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE AND WAS KIND OF TERRIFIED.

This terror kept me from starting the project for two weeks. Every time I thought of getting my supplies together, I would freeze and then find something else to do. Avoidance is my coping mechanism, for better or for worse (mostly for worse). Every time I saw these bottles where I set them on my dining table in waiting made my heart skip a beat in a not-so-fun way. Look, I’m quite capable. I can sew, paint, cook, do crafts, build furniture, put up wallpaper, etc., but dyeing fabric is incredibly permanent, and it had me shook for some reason.

But then February 2 came around, and I knew it was do or die (die = miss my deadline and disappoint my beloved Jess, who needed this post for today). I took a deep breath, grabbed the curtains from the upstairs linen closet, and just got to work.

Finally, Dyeing the Curtains

I’m not going to go into every detail of the dying process because the step-by-step is unbeatable on the Rit website (see that here), but I’ll touch on the broad strokes.

I started by washing the curtains to remove dust or grime from hanging in my previous home for years. Also, putting damp or wet fabric into the dye is best for getting an even application.

In they went. Once the cycle was done, I removed them, started a new cycle with hot water, and waited for the drum to fill all the way. I followed the instructions for diluting the dye with boiling water in a stainless steel bowl prior to adding it to the drum. You also have to dissolve a cup of salt in another bowl of boiling water to add to the laundry. I missed this fact in my prep and had to cobble together some pink Himalayan sea salt with some coarse grey salt I had in my pantry. Not ideal, but it’s what I had, and I didn’t want to have to run to the store in the middle of the project.

Pouring such concentrated dye into my washing machine was nerve-wracking, but the website swore up and down it wouldn’t stain. I let the curtains sit in the dye water for about 15 minutes before closing the lid to start the cycle. They have to be in the solution for 30 minutes minimum, an hour max. Right before the rinse cycle, I stopped the machine and gave them another 5 to 10 minutes to really give the color time to set. The longer they sit, the darker they get. For me, it was like how it feels to be in the chair at the hair salon with the intention of only getting a trim, and suddenly you hear yourself saying “take it all off” to the stylist. Like…why do I do this kind of thing? More is not always more.

The photo on the right is what they looked like wet after the first rinse. You’re supposed to do another wash with some mild detergent, which I did. I wasn’t sure how much dye would wash out, so I was nervous. At this point, I kept saying “trust the process, trust the process” to myself frequently. When mixing the colors together, I ended up adding three capfuls of the eggplant, and wondered if I should have done more as they looked quite red.

The Big Reveal

After drying, ironing, and hemming, here is the final result:

Please excuse the poorly lit photo. I really wanted to snap this with the beautiful morning light that streams into this room, but I didn’t manage to get everything up until close to 2 pm, when we lose light thanks to the shade the trees cast.

I did tidy up but didn’t do much in terms of styling or fussing, so this is definitely not so much a “reveal” as it is a “hey, look what I did” photo snapped with my iPhone. You may notice that the bracket for the French curtain rod is horizontal. Folks, it should be vertical; however, as I was putting it up, I realized that, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I didn’t have enough clearance between the top of the window and the ceiling. With no time left for mistakes, I just turned them to the side and moved forward. This meant that I couldn’t use the center support, however, and I was crossing my fingers that the rod would be strong enough at this width to not sag without it. So far, it’s holding and feels super sturdy, thank goodness.

So…Do I Like It?

Here’s the big question: What do I think about the finished result? Well…I’m honestly not sure. A few things I like: The length of the curtains feels far better suited to the size of the window, and the room feels much better balanced. I can see now that I needed full-length draperies here the whole time, and the cafe curtain was a miss that I tried hard to make work unsuccessfully.

What I don’t love? Well, the color itself. Maybe it was the eggplant I went rogue with and added in that threw it all off, maybe I let them sit too long, or maybe I picked the wrong color to begin with, but they are super saturated and a bit more red than I wanted them to be. Yes, I can acknowledge that the color does closely match the swatch from the Rit website, but at this large scale, it’s a bit overwhelming. In a quieter room, with fewer red-hued wood tones, I think I’d really like them. But to my eye, it all feels too red and warm. The room needs some cool-toned balance.

Ultimately, even though my end result isn’t exactly what I wanted, I am incredibly impressed with the dye and the process. The panels are evenly dyed, saturated, and look like they were always this color. I would never look at them and think they were white before, which is pretty cool, tbh. I’ll definitely be far less scared to do this process again for another home project in the future.

The plan is to leave them up and let them be. They are very pretty, just overwhelming to my eye in this particular space. If we were staying for another year or two, I’d take my two remaining white panels I have stored away and go for a lighter pinky brown color, rather than this deep rusty red. But for now, it’s at least better than what I had (to me, and if you disagree, feel free to keep that to yourself).

So that’s it. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about the dye or the process, and welcome any general insights, as well. Thanks for following along on this curtain journey with me.

Until next time, friends…